ATLA: Book Three: Fire [Makki]

Chapter Twelve

Katara quickly gave Dad a hug before running back to Aang. I also embraced Dad just after her.

"Goodbye, Dad," I whispered.

"Stay safe," he whispered back.

We released each other and I followed Katara back to Aang and Appa. Behind me, Sokka came running up with his girlfriend, who I learned was named Suki, and helped get us all onto Appa's saddle.

"I can clear that away and we can fly out through there," Toph announced as she placed her hand on a wall before making her way up to us.

"Um, there's an awful lot of fire in that general direction," said Suki.

"We'll get through. Let's go," Aang said as he took Appa's reins.

Quickly, Toph broke down the wall and Appa flew through the debris. Using some of the wall as a shield, we flew past the leading airship and turned around once we knew we were clear. Looking behind us, we all watched as Zuko came rising up on an airship, getting ready to face his sister, Azula, who was leading the fleet. Zuko jumped from his own airship towards Azula's. Azula tried fire bending at him, but he easily dodged and fired his own blast. Once Zuko landed on Azula's airship, the two began their own intense battle.

"Look out!"

All of our attentions were now taken by the soldiers atop the airships as they shot streams of fire at us. Katara and I both stood up and used our water bending to extinguish the airborne blasts. When one airship blocked our path, Katara and I sat back down as Aang steered Appa upwards to avoid the ships. Now in the clear, we turned back to Zuko and Azula's fight, where the two had suddenly come together to create a large explosion. Both fire benders were blown back from the blast and came hurtling off the ship and towards the ground.

Zuko..!

Aang quickly yanked on Appa's reins to have him turn around and fly under Zuko. As we closed in on his descending form, I stood up and outstretched my arm. When he made it to us, I tightly gripped his arm and pulled him onto the saddle. When he was safe with us, we all turned to watch Azula as she continued to fall.

"She's... not gonna make it," Zuko mumbled.

Suddenly, Azula blasted fire from her feet to propel herself towards the rock wall of the temple. When she made it, she gripped the edge and slowly came to a stop.

"Of course she did."

We all glared at her shrinking figure as we flew to a safe place.

Goodbye, Western Air Temple...

[~][~][~]

Before the sun was set, we made it all the way back to where we met up with everyone for the invasion. The place with all of the koala sheep. We quickly set up camp and even started making dinner. Once it was done, the moon was up and our fire was burning brightly. We all sat around the warm fire, eating dinner, and talking cheerfully, despite today's earlier events.

"Wow, camping... it really seems like old times again, doesn't it?" Aang smiled.

"If you really want it to feel like old times, I could, uh, chase you around a while and try to capture you," Zuko joked.

Everyone, except for me and Katara, laughed at him.

"Ha ha," Katara glared.

I simply kept my eyes down with a neutral expression painting my face.

I'm starting to believe that Zuko is truly good, mainly because of all the things that he's done since he's been here, but it's still hard for me to see him the way I used to...